The Broadcast Asia 2012 International Conference will be held in Singapore from June 19–22

The
BroadcastAsia 2012 International Conference will be held in Singapore from June
19–22. Located at Suntec in downtown Singapore, the show is being held
concurrently with CommunicAsia, located a short shuttle bus ride away at
Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands.

THE CONTEXT
The shows will happen in a market where the creation of
content is a relatively mature area of the TV industry. HD digital cameras such
as the Arri Alexa, RED and new models from Sony, Panasonic, JVC and Canon have
become well-accepted tools of the trade. Meanwhile, film as a capture medium is
fading fast; ably assisted by a dearth of competent laboratory services.

Broadcasting has moved rapidly onwards and outwards from the
home TV set and is becoming more and more a multiscreen endeavour. Broadcasters
are now driven to add value by customising content to specific audience
interests and communicating with viewers across cell phone, tablet, DVR and
time-shifting platforms. A recent Cisco report predicts that by 2016, there
will be a global population of 10 billion smartphones and tablets. That's
around 1.4 mobile gadgets per person!

Fighting back,
the home television set is changing too, becoming a multi-purpose, ISP-linked
communication tool. While 3D was hyped a year or two ago as a big trend, smart
TVs are a more likely area of immediate interest for most consumers.

In a world with Facebook and Twitter competing for audience, broadcasters
are searching for the ideal means to monetize content and maintain a presence. The
business is no longer only about transmitting, but also about the interaction
between content providers and consumers.

"At the
top of broadcasters’ minds must be the divergence in the way audiences have to
access the content,” says Chris Grey, head of creative content solutions at
Sony Electronics Asia Pacific; “and how best to engage audiences across the
four screens: TVs, PCs, tablets and mobile phones."

Beyond the ‘small screens’ another possible trend of some import is the
emergence of hi-res, large screen options. Graham Stephens, CTO of Iskandar
Malaysia Studios, predicts the emergence of hardware that can support
economically affordable production at 1080p50/60 fps. Moreover, "The
migration to 4K will give customers a more immersive viewing experience,” he
says.

Confirmed exhibitors Axon, EVS, Seachange and
Magna will feature prominently in a live
special showcase of cloud broadcasting and over-the-top (OTT) television, where attendees will see advanced multiscreen
technology and multi-package, live media delivery. The equipment will be
supplied by Axon, EVS and Magna Systems, while Seachange and Sony Pictures
Television Networks Asia will provide the content.

CONFERENCE CONTENT
BroadcastAsia has more than 80 significant
industry speakers lined up to discuss the most critical issues facing
broadcasters today. Speakers representing various segments of the broadcast
industry will touch on issues such as shifting content and the move towards digital
terrestrial broadcasting.

New Multiscreen Workflow Platform

Digital Rapids will show its
new Kayak workflow platform. A significant departure from other workflow
technology approaches, Kayak enables customers, systems integrators and
software developers to design, deploy and manage customized workflows in the
expanding multiscreen media landscape.

The Kayak
platform powers the advances ‘under the hood’ of the upcoming version 2.0 of
the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager software. Unlike workflow
approaches that simply orchestrate between separate applications across
multiple workflow stages, Kayak is built on a philosophy of granular modularity
with technologies as components -- from media-specific functions like encoding,
packaging and processing to business-oriented functionality such as analytics,
automated intelligence and reporting. These workflow building blocks are
warehoused in a catalogue of best-of-breed technologies and solutions from
Digital Rapids and a broad array of third-party partners, creating an open
ecosystem of easy-to-access technology.

Some talks to watch for: Danny
Wilson, President & CEO, Pixelmetrix Corporation will be discussing OTT
television. “Should the ongoing financial crisis in Europe spread to Asia, I
expect operators’ plans for expansion to be further delayed,” Wilson tells TV Technology Asia/Pacific. “Already,
Asian expansion of traditional television infrastructure is well behind
original schedules. The current push for OTT television might put further
pressure on the industry."

Jonathan Benartzi, CEO
of LiveAsia TV, will review the value proposition of the hybrid platform. He
will explain how broadcasters can aggregate all content on one platform for
distribution to multiple platforms.

Discussions will be
held on social media and its significance to broadcasting. Speakers will
explore business models for monetising social media, technology for
multiscreen, OTT and cloud broadcasting.

Cloud
technologies are currently used to distribute video content to consumers in a
number of scenarios. Vidya S Nath, Global Industry Manager at Frost &
Sullivan will demonstrate how they can also be used effectively for
professional video content production and management. Meanwhile, over at the CommunicAsia
gathering speakers will address compelling issues including technology reviews
of the various cloud platforms; strategies for migration, adoption and
deployment; ROIs for different cloud implementations; mobile cloud content
delivery models; and monetising mobile cloud opportunities.